Join our team of experts who will guide you through
exhibits and lab activities to show you the real science behind CSI, and take you step-by-step through the
collection, examination, and analysis of forensic evidence. These highly interactive workshops will place the
investigator's tools in your hands and teach you the tricks to solve the crime. With a wide range of topics to
discover, you'll keep coming back for more.
Private or School Group Labs are available upon request: Groups Information
Forensic Lab - The Total CSI Experience: This multi-station lab allows you to step into the shoes of both the forensic scientist and the detective. You'll learn how bloodstains can help investigators determine the weapon that created them, as well as how to lift a latent fingerprint, compare fibers microscopically, and decipher DNA profiles or handwriting. You'll also learn how detectives follow up on suspect statements and check alibis using witness statements and phone records. Finally, you'll have to put the evidence together and figure out what it means to solve a case.
Impressions Workshop: Focusing on impressions evidence-evidence left when an object presses into another, leaving an "impression" behind -- this workshop covers crime scene procedures and examination techniques for both shoeprints and fingerprints. You'll learn to collect shoeprint evidence by making a cast from dental stone, then to make a comparison between a shoeprint and soles of suspects' shoes. Next you'll learn to find, enhance, and lift latent fingerprints from smooth surfaces. Finally, you'll perform a fingerprint comparison and decide whether the evidence gathered is enough to determine the guilt of a particular suspect.
Blood & DNA Workshop: Forensic biology involves applying biological evidence to crime-solving. This workshop covers various types of bloodstain pattern evidence, and how they can help reconstruct how a crime occurred. Students will compare test castoff patterns to a crime scene to determine the weapon used. You'll also learn techniques for finding bloodstains invisible to the naked eye, and how DNA can place a suspect at the scene of a crime. Finally, you'll interpret the evidence you've gathered to see how such evidence can support or disprove a suspect's story.
The Smoking Pen - Forensic Document Examination: Learn how a single piece of paper can link a suspect to a crime in several different ways. See how obliterated document evidence can be recovered using spectral comparison technology, and how indented writing can be deciphered using advanced technology or simple light physics. Then learn how to determine the author of a document using techniques such as forensic linguistics and handwriting analysis. Finally, take a look at the high-tech security features used to uncover false identification.
Pathology Workshop: What's it really like to be a forensic pathologist? Learn what kinds of cases are covered by a Medical Examiner, how an autopsy is performed, and what goes into filling out a death certificate. See the differences between various wound types, from lacerations to gunshot wounds. Finally, fulfill your duties as Medical Examiner by determining a cause and manner of death -- by performing a simulated autopsy!
Body Decomposition Workshop: What happens to a body after death? How can forensic scientists tell how long it's been since the moment of death? How can insect activity on a decomposing body help an investigation? In this workshop you'll learn all of this and more -- learn the various postmortem processes and how a real forensic scientist determines time of death. You'll see pictures and videos of various processes and use insect evidence to find an approximate postmortem interval for two dead bodies.*
Crime to Courtroom Workshop: Step into the role of a crime scene investigator, detective, jury foreman, or even trial judge in our interactive roleplay workshop depicting the real process of murder investigation. Process a crime scene, learn how to decrypt a barcode on a firearm, and see if your forensic evidence will hold up in court. You'll learn how all the different roles in the justice system fit together.
COMING SOON - Forensic Anthropology Workshop: This workshop covers various methods of identifying skeletonized human remains used by forensic anthropologists. You'll learn the effects of age on human bones, as well as the differences between the bones of animals and humans, men and women, and humans of different heights. You'll also see examples of unique characteristics that may help make an identification.
COMING SOON - Fact v. Fiction Workshop: CSI Effect (n.): The effect of crime dramas like CSI on public perception of forensic science, particularly in jury trials, due to the largely inaccurate portrayal of the field. This workshop will correct many of the common misconceptions about the forensic sciences, from common scientific or procedural errors in the programs to inaccurate interpretations of the legal system, as brought on by such fictional accounts. Participants will learn to take these programs with a grain of salt, and will leave the workshop knowing the reality behind their favorite television shows.
Activities and content are appropriate for visitors of all ages.* Workshops are held in the NMCP and last for
one hour. You must purchase an admission ticket in order to attend the workshop. Tickets may not be
available online until 2 weeks prior to the workshop date. Please check back for availability.
Please
arrive 15 minutes before the workshop. Tickets are not refundable if the patron arrives late or fails to attend
the workshop. The NMCP reserves the right to cancel or change workshops at any time; should this occur, we will
do our best to contact you promptly to inform you of refund or exchange procedures.
*Due to content, the Body Decomposition workshop is recommended only for 7th graders and up.
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